Kanye West Impresses Visual Artist Who Inspired His ‘Famous’ Video

Kanye West has apparently impressed the artist he “sampled” in his “Famous” video that was unveiled Friday in front of a live arena audience in Los Angeles. Visual artist Vincent Desiderio revealed to W Magazine how he was contacted and flown to LA by West to see the work, all while knowing almost nothing about West’s project. Skeptical, the artist accepted West’s request to join him for the event on the West Coast.

Upon arrival, Desiderio was taken right to The Forum where he was presented a video on a laptop. West was there to press play.

A complete surprise to Desiderio, West had reproduced his 2008 painting titled, “Sleep,” with “frighteningly uncanny” artistic authenticity.

As I looked around the room at the smiling faces, it became apparent that, unbeknownst to me, a remarkable collaboration had occurred, one that brought together artistic expressions that, at least on the surface of it all, couldn’t seem further apart. I felt as if I had been presented with the most extraordinary gift: Kanye and his crew had spent the past months producing a video of tremendous power and beauty, and at its core was a painting. My painting.

What was even stranger to Desiderio was that he had actually planned to make his painting come to life as a “site-specific installation on the ceiling of Grand Central Station.” The New York artist explained that his future installation would involve a projection of figures sleeping, “like slumbering gods, around the green zodiac vault.”

Desiderio and West concluded that their minds were “clearly operating on the same wavelength, albeit from different transmitters.”

All in all, it appears as though Desiderio was impressed with West’s re-imagining of his painting.